Furthermore, it has not yet been proven that marijuana causes lung cancer. Although, there has been few studies that shows marijuana having the same carcinogenic chemicals that tobacco has. But statistically, many marijuana users also smoke cigarettes. Plus, marijuana users could not equal the amount they smoke cigarettes with the amount they smoke marijuana because nicotine is more addicting. .
A common myth about marijuana is that it is very addicting and chronic users develop a physical dependence to the THC containing in the plant, which later causes severe withdrawals. It is difficult to calculate if marijuana is addicting. Most people, who smoke marijuana, only smoke on occasion. There is only less than one percent of Americans smoke on a daily or near to daily basis Zimmer ). .
Today, marijuana is the most popular and widely used illicit drug in the United States. Many people view marijuana as a gateway drug to more harmful and .
dangerous substances. Usage of marijuana by teens and young adults has increased from the 1960's to the present day. If you look at this issue a little more closely, you will see that there isn't any hard evidence to support that marijuana will lead to harder drugs. According to recent facts acquired by Zimmer and Morgan, statistics tend to present the gateway theory as a causal explanation to associate drugs that are popular and to those that are unpopular. Over time, as drugs increase and decrease in popularity, people who use harder drugs like cocaine and heroin are more likely to have used marijuana. Another reason that statistics could be misleading about the "gateway drug" issue is because some of the people, who sell marijuana, also sell other drugs (Zimmer 3). As popular marijuana is in this country, many people would also like to make a profit by selling other drugs. "Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a gateway drug" (3).
